13 



tho small Snliaran running cainol will do (80 — 100 kinrs.) 50 — 05 

 niilos p(U' diem. Ydung camels scarcely yield to liorses in the 

 quickness of their gallop. Kostcnko puts the rate of a camel's 

 trot at GiJ mile per hour ; Daumas s,a.ys " li not overdriven the 

 camel can go from dawn to sunset^ if allowed to pluck herbage 

 from the roadside as it passes, it will cover 10 — 12 leagues (24 

 — 29 miles) in 21 hours and every fifth day must be permitted 

 to rest." When used with caravans 20^ — 26 1 miles is the length 

 of the average stage. The ordinary Kirghiz summer daily move 

 amounts to 16§ miles (Kostenko). We may agree with Leach in 

 his estimate that 12 to 15 miles per diem is the proper distance 

 for camels on service to march. Martin's estimate 17 to 20 miles 

 can apply only when traversing level sandy country. Thus the 

 camel is the slowest paced animal we ordinarily use for transport 

 and so should be taken neither on flying columns nor on long imper- 

 fectly protected lines of communication with a rapidly moving 

 front, but he is eminently useful as a pack animal with an army 

 advancing slowly and securing itslines of communication carefully. 

 (7) Camel convoys are capable of long daily marches, and, con- 

 sidering the weight carried, they comprise few attendants and oc- 

 cupy a small space. 500 camels in Indian file occupy one mile 

 whereas mules or ponies carrying the same load would occupy 

 two miles ; also 2,500 maunds carried by camels in lieii of ponies 

 lessens the number of attendants by 293 (Yaldwin). These are 

 most important considerations as indicating : — (a) A mai'ked re- 

 duction in the nvimber of noucombatants to be protected, fed, and 

 carried when sick and wounded, {h) Also in the number of com- 

 batants to be diverted from work at the front to protect the con- 

 voy. Some camels, as those from the hills of Afghanistan, will 

 work in a drove, but this, however advantageous for protection, is 

 generally inadmissible in a convoy and the ordinary method of 

 having the camels in strings of three, the nose ropes of the second 

 audthirdbeingattachedto the tail or saddle of the first and second 

 respectively, is found to be best. It is well when opportunity 

 offers to march on a broad front when the country traversed is 

 hostile, but the drivers prefer to go in long train and will take up 

 this formation unless made to arrange themselves otherwise. It 

 is remarkable that the French in Algeria consider that for the 

 general purposes of army progress the camel is the " swiftest by 



